1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a variable control apparatus and a variable control method for determining a short-term driving tendency, and more particularly, to a variable control apparatus and a variable control method for determining a short-term driving tendency in accordance with a relative speed with respect to a forward vehicle and an acceleration operation.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, drivers, who drive vehicles, have different and various driving tendencies, respectively. For example, like a driver who drives a vehicle at a high average running speed, a driver using low or high acceleration and deceleration characteristics compared to other drivers, a driver who performs fuel-efficient driving, or a driver who drives a vehicle over a long distance on a highway mainly on weekends, drivers may have many different driving tendencies.
A satisfaction of the customer regarding running performance of a vehicle depends on how the vehicle runs and coincides with a driving tendency of the driver. But because the premade vehicles generally have predetermined uniform performance characteristics, there is a drawback in that various driving tendencies of the customers are not reflected. Therefore, in recent years, researches on vehicle control technologies based on a driving tendency of the driver, which recognizes the driving tendency of the driver and allows the vehicle to respond suitably to the driving tendency of the driver, are being actively conducted.
In order to provide the vehicle control technology based on the driving tendency of the driver, first, it is very important to accurately determine the driving tendency of the driver. Meanwhile, in order to determine an acceleration driving tendency of the driver, an accelerator pedal opening degree (APS) and a change rate of an accelerator pedal opening degree (ΔAPS) were mainly used in the related art. However, even though a situation of manipulating the accelerator pedal is an important reference for determining the driver's acceleration intention, there is a limitation to express the overall driving intention of the driver. In addition, since an inaccurate tendency determination numerical value is obtained regardless of the tendency of the driver when continuously calculating the tendency of the driver in the aforementioned problematic situation, there is a problem in that reliability on the vehicle control technology based on the overall driving tendency deteriorates.
Therefore, in order to provide the vehicle control technology based on the driving tendency, which shows high reliability and satisfaction of the customers, a method capable of more accurately determining the driving tendency of the driver is required.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.